After leaving the Great Northern Wilderness for nine years, the “former Wolf King” Karl-Anthony Towns , whose status in the Timberwolves has gradually weakened , moved to the New York Knicks this season. Instead of maladaptive to the aura of the Big Apple, he was pleasantly surprised. It has created a career-high performance, and also helped the team currently rank third in the Eastern Conference!
Before the start of the season, a commercial deal changed the Knicks’ fate this season. This operation by the management made the basketball dream of the Nuraviva brothers of Jalen Brunson , Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, and Donte DiVincenzo come to an end before it lasted long. Although the Knicks’ front office has finally resolved the long-standing issue of Julius Randle ‘s future, Towns has become the team’s most critical weapon in competing for the Eastern Conference throne this year.
Towns was often ridiculed as “jellybean” in his early years. He was criticized for his soft style of play and his defensive intensity. In view of this, the Timberwolves brought in Rudy Gobert as the defensive center to cover Towns’ weaknesses on the defensive end. However, the twin-tower experiment was not only time-consuming, but also ultimately a failure based on the criteria of winning the championship. In order to allow Gobert, who has no independent offensive ability, to participate in the offense, the team forced Towns to make sacrifices to reduce the ball rights to a certain extent. He is no longer the accustomed role of the main screener in the pick-and-roll; and the Gray Wolves are in “Ant-Man” After the rapid rise of Anthony Edwards , he domineeringly stole the number one offensive option. Of course, this weakened the importance of Towns’ offensive level and gradually became a high turret waiting for the ball to attack. It is a pity with his ability.
However, the above situation was released in the new system created for Towns when he came to the Knicks. Last year, the Knicks relied on Bronson to hold the ball a lot to create breakthrough offense and passing opportunities. This season, the Knicks are based on dual cores. The coordinated attack between Bronson and Towns. Commander Bronson is still responsible for organizing and initiating the offense, while Towns returns to his familiar pick-and-roll role, and the team also gives him more room to play freely to amplify his advantages on the court. For example, Towns likes to pull to the outside to shoot after the pick-and-roll, or after receiving the ball, he uses his ball-handling skills and speed to beat the opponent’s center who cannot keep up. These two moves are enough to make him very lethal on the court.
Towns has always been a tall man with excellent dribbling ability and flexibility. He has won the three-point shooting contest and is undoubtedly the best seven-foot tall man in the league at outside attack. This season, he averaged 24.7 points per game, three-pointers. He averaged 2.3 field goals in each game and continued his career-high shooting percentage of 45.6%. The overall effective field goal percentage was as high as 60%. After switching to a new team, he worked well with his teammates. He averaged 2.6 turnovers per game, even more than last season with the Timberwolves. Low.
